1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to connecting an access point to other network elements in wireless telecommunication systems.
2. Brief Description of Related Developments
In addition to PLMN mobile networks (Public Land Mobile Network), mainly owned and controlled by mobile operators, various wireless private networks have been designed for the needs of companies, for example. These wireless private networks are typically WLAN networks (Wireless Local Area Network), which have a short service range and which offer a wireless connection inside an office, for example. Important wireless network standards, mainly intended for private use, include the IEEE802.11 WLAN standard, the TETRA standard (Trans-European Trunked Radio), and the DECT standard (Digital European Cordless Telecommunications). The third generation mobile system UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications Systems), designed by 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project), is a system in which the WCDMA technology (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access) will be used on the radio path. In the WCDMA system, all terminals in a cell use the same mutual frequency on the transmission path from a to a base station, and, similarly, the same mutual frequency on the transmission path from a base station to a terminal. In association with mobile systems, the WCDMA system can be implemented either as frequency division channelling (FDD mode, Frequency Division Duplex) or as time division channelling (TDD mode, Time Division Duplex). The TDD mode is designed to be used particularly in small pico cells, which could be used for instance to cover the inner wireless communication within a company's buildings. For this purpose, QPSK modulation can be used, enabling downlink rates of 5.7 Mbps without encoding, and in the future, 16QAM modulation (Quadrature Amplitude Modulation), enabling downlink rates of as much as 11.4 Mbps.
In the present application, the term access point in a wireless telecommunication system refers to any network element or an aggregate of several network elements, which participates in offering a wireless connection to a terminal either directly or indirectly. The access point can be for example a base station, a radio network controller (or base station controller) controlling one or several base stations, or an entity including a base station and a radio network controller. Although mainly operators currently manage the access points of PLMN networks, such as the GSM or UMTS networks, in future an increasing number of PLMN network access points may also be in private use. Private use refers to use by both individuals and organizations. Furthermore, operators may be motivated to turn over the management of the access point network to other parties, for example as subcontracting. However, connecting access points to other network elements in a telecommunication system causes problems. An operator managing the other network elements, such as the core network, has no efficient way to control the connection of access points to the other network elements. Connecting an access point to the other parts of a telecommunication system requires adjustment of the settings, and consequently, moving access points or taking new access points into use cannot be carried out easily and rapidly. Connections from access points to other network elements can be arranged through public networks, such as the Internet, which brings about security risks.